


Too Many Cooks

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen, warning for sexual references and mild swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 11:19:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13612263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: The gang decides to all pitch in to make Zelda a birthday cake. It all goes horribly wrong. Jack belongs to SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher, Alessa belongs to sso-duskhill on tumblr, Jacky belongs to Zebrablanket, Astrid belongs to Rsenak on tumblr, Shadow belongs to Shadowlord13, Ronja belongs to NumiTuziNeru, Ali belongs to sso-aliarchdotter on tumblr, Race belongs to twracehorse on tumblr, Savvy belongs to sso-saturnrider or tumblr, Eden belongs to sso-eden-dawnvalley on tumblr, and Z belongs to ZDusk.





	Too Many Cooks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ZDusk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZDusk/gifts).



> Too many cooks more like too many characters why do I keep doing this to myself. Anyway, happy birthday, Z!

Since the last grand adventure, Louisa hadn’t made a habit of getting up early. Usually, she liked nothing more than to lie in bed, the covers up over her, ignoring her phone or girlfriend or cat trying to get her out of bed. But today, on the eighth of February, Louisa was out of bed not long after the sun had risen. She wasn’t going fishing today, though, nor was she going for another early morning flight with Goldie (they were fun, but her horse was currently busy spending time with his family). Today was important for another reason. And that reason was so that she could get to the shops before every single ingredient could be taken from them. She didn’t need much, mostly food colouring and the ingredients for fondant and royal icing, as well as the ingredients for the cake itself. As a backup, she also grabbed a few bags of lollies (or candy as her non-Australian friends called it), and then an extra bag (and some chocolate) for herself for later.

Once home, Louisa got to work on the cake, her hands and arms quickly becoming covered in white powder from the flour and icing sugar. She knew that she should make the icing and fondant last, but she needed to test to see if she could make it first.

And then, as she was frowning over a bowl of fondant that looked more like slop, her phone buzzed on the kitchen counter. Giving a sigh, Louisa tapped the answer button, followed by the loudspeaker button.

“Hey, are you busy?” said Jack by way of answering. Louisa smirked.

“Kind of, yeah,” said Louisa, looking at her sugar-dusted hands. “Why?”

“We’re organising a birthday party for Z,” said Jack. “And since you’re the cook, we thought that you could be in charge of the cooking.”

“Heh, that’s actually what I’m doing right now,” said Louisa, eyeing her messy kitchen. “It’s not going great so far, but I’m sure it’ll all come together in the end.”

“Oh, well, maybe we could come and help you,” said Jack.

“Who’s ‘we’?” asked Louisa, suddenly afraid that her kitchen would soon become very crowded.

“Uh, just me, Race, Jacky, Lea, Astrid, Ali, Zeal, Shadow, Ronja and Savvy,” said Jack.

“I guess that’s okay,” said Louisa, frowning as she did the math. Maybe some of them would stay out of the kitchen? She knew that Shadow loved cats, so she’d probably spend some time with them, she’d just need to hide her father’s alcohol supply from Astrid and Zeal. And probably Ronja, too.

“Great, then we’re on our way now,” said Jack. Louisa heard the noise of several other people and their horses through the phone. Her face paled at the thought of everyone coming here, to her house. At least they were all her friends, or at least her acquaintances. “We’re heading over to Burg’s house.” The responding cheer made Louisa tremble slightly, and she quickly said goodbye and tapped the ‘end call’ button. As a black and white cat padded into the kitchen, Louisa took a deep breath and let it out.

“What have I gotten myself into this time?” said Louisa while Barcode bent down to lap at a bowl of cat milk that Louisa had refreshed not too long ago.

Just as she’d expected, Shadow went straight for the cats and sat down on the couch with one black cat in her lap, cooing over how much he looked like her Kito. Jacky and Savvy found Louisa’s game consoles and sat down to play a game, while Astrid sat on the kitchen bench with a bottle of alcohol from somewhere in her hand and Ali sat at the kitchen table, watching everything with a smile on her face. Everyone else was crowded into the kitchen with Louisa.

“So, what’s this?” asked Ronja, dipping her finger into the bowl of green frosting that had once been intended to be fondant. She made a face after sticking her finger into her mouth. “Ick, that’s a bit rich.”

“Well, it was supposed to be fondant,” said Louisa. Ronja scoffed.

“No need to get all fancy, it’s just a bloomin cake,” said Ronja. Louisa watched mournfully as Ronja picked up the mixing bowl, fully intent on throwing the entire thing, mixture and all, into the garbage bin.

“No, gimme!” Race cried, grabbing the bowl of frosting and fishing a large spoon out of the drawer. She ate it, smiling.

“Actually, I think that a cake decorated with fondant is a great idea,” said Eden with a smile. Ronja snorted.

“You would, you’re practically Alonso’s wife,” said Ronja. Eden blushed but didn’t deny it.

“Is the cake in the oven yet?” asked Lea.

“Yeah, I put it in there this morning, why?” asked Louisa. Lea sniffed the air.

“Because I recognise the smell of burning better than anyone,” said Lea, pointing to the oven. “And I think it’s done.”

“No!” Louisa cried, quickly spinning the oven dial to zero and looking at the timer, which hadn’t gone off. “Oh no, I must’ve forgotten to set it this morning because I was too busy getting started on the icing.” She had tears in her eyes as she bent down, oven mitts donned, and pulled out the very brown husk of what had once been a sponge cake.

“It’s okay, we can make another one,” said Jack, patting his friend on the back as she stood up and set the cake down on the side of the kitchen sink.

“Yeah, we’re not too bad at cooking,” said Race.

“I’m not allowed to use ovens,” said Ronja. Somehow, Louisa was not at all surprised to hear that.

“We should make a rum cake,” Astrid declared, holding up her bottle of cooking sherry.

“Z’s only been drunk once and that was the last time she was going to drink,” said Jack.

“Can’t we just go with my original idea?” asked Louisa.

“And what was that?” asked Ali, looking at her from the kitchen table.

“A simple sponge filled with cream and strawberry jam, with a fondant country scene on the top of it,” said Louisa. “I even made a little fondant Justin, since she can’t have the real thing.”

“Oh, you mean this?” asked Astrid, holding up a black shape that looked very much like a- Ronja cackled.

“You reshaped ‘im into a bloody cock!” she laughed, holding her sides. Astrid nodded while everyone else either laughed or, in Louisa’s case, gave a resigned sigh.

“Yes, that was Justin,” said Louisa. “He looked alright, too.”

“Sorry, lemme just-“ Astrid said, and began to attempt to reshape the blob. The top part of it fell off, and she watched it fall to the kitchen bench and roll off onto the floor. “Oh dear, I’ve beheaded him.” Louisa actually giggled at that.

“Well, let’s try again,” said Lea, rinsing out the mixing bowls and measuring cups and jugs in the sink. “What do you need?”

Ali got up and helped to organise all of the ingredients on the table, while Eden and Jack managed to shoo a drunken Astrid off of the kitchen bench so that Louisa could put the electric mixer there.

“Alright, round two,” said Louisa, plugging in the mixer and then turning back to the table.

“Let’s have some music while we work,” said Jack, holding up his phone. Louisa was completely unsurprised to find that he’d queued up a Jortube playlist of LazyTown songs.

“Question,” said Astrid from her new spot at the kitchen table. “Do you ever have sex to that music, Jack?”

“What? No,” said Jack, his cheeks flaming. Ronja and Race both cackled, while Louisa hid a smile in the fridge as she bent to get out some milk and butter.

“Just wondering,” said Astrid with a shrug, and went back to drinking. Louisa wondered, as she often did, if she should be worried about her red-haired artist friend.

Jack started up the music, a song about baking a cake, and Louisa sang along a little as she put the ingredients into the bowl and mixed them together, remembering her sister’s recipe for baking the perfect cake.

It was all going very peacefully until the pirate song came on. When it did, Ronja and Astrid got very into it, jumping up onto the kitchen table and dancing, their kicking feet sending bags of flower and egg shells flying everywhere. Louisa winced and ducked to avoid a flying carton of milk, which crashed into the wall and started dribbling milk down onto the floor. Louisa sighed again.

“Get off the table!” Eden shouted at them, and managed to pull Astrid down while Ali did the same with Ronja.

“Y’know, I don’t think Dunya has done this yet,” said Lea. “She’s done a lot of stupid shit, but not this.”

“Really? Maybe she and I should meet,” said Ronja.

“Then it really would be the end of the world,” said Lea drily.

“At least the cake’s in the oven, and the timer is on this time,” said Race. “It is on, right?”

“Yes,” said Louisa, nodding. “The timer’s been set and the oven is on at the right temperature. I think I’ve got everything in there properly.” She had gotten a little caught up in the fun of baking with her friends, she had to admit, so it was entirely possible that she’d forgotten something or put too much of something in. She frowned again as she picked up the spilled bag of self-raising flour. Had she put that into her cake? She wasn’t sure. But sponges cooked quickly, so they had time to make another one if this one didn’t turn out right.

“Good! So now, we wait,” said Ali, smiling as she sat back in her seat. 

“And clean up,” said Eden, already bending down to pick up a glass bowl that miraculously hadn’t shattered.

“Well, usually when you’re cooking, you wash up while you’re waiting for things to cook,” said Louisa. “And clean the benches and stuff.”

“Alright, I’ll help you pick things up,” said Eden. “Since I’m already doing that.”

“I’ll wipe down the benches,” said Lea, picking up the overturned milk carton and closing it before putting it back into the fridge. She grabbed a wet rag and began to wipe down the bench.

“And, once you’re done with the floor, I’ll sweep,” said Ali.

“And I guess I can mop,” said Race. Louisa smiled.

“Thanks, guys,” said Louisa.

The timer went off as Race was just finishing up the mopping, and Louisa bent down to retrieve a very non-burnt cake from the oven. But it didn’t look right.

“How?” asked Louisa, staring at the lumpy and misshapen sponge. “I know I sifted the flours!”

“Oh, I noticed that you didn’t put any self-raising in, so I did that for ya,” said Ronja. “You’re welcome.” Louisa pouted as she looked at her cake.

“Well, I guess we can make another,” said Louisa.

“Nah, why bother when everything’s in it?” said Ronja. “Now we just gotta ice this thing.” Louisa sighed, knowing that she didn’t have enough milk or flour left to try again. This would just have to do, as horrible as it looked.

“I can make the frosting for you if you like,” said Lea, already getting the icing sugar and milk out of the fridge while she was there. “I guess you have enough milk.”

“Thanks,” said Louisa. “I guess I can try making fondant figures again, I still have some left over.” It was all black fondant, too, thanks to Z’s love for black horses and black clothing.

“I’ll make a Phantom,” said Astrid, swiping the black fondant and beginning to shape it into four legs, a body, a neck, and a head.

“Good,” said Louisa, nodding. “Jack, you’re familiar with the male body, want to make a Justin?”

“I’d rather not touch a Justin,” said Jack. “Someone else can do it.” Louisa sighed.

“Can’t be that hard to make a bloke,” said Ronja, grabbing some fondant and forming it into a roughly cylindrical shape. “Oops, made another penis.” Louisa rubbed her floury hands over her face.

“Ok, the frosting is done,” said Lea after a little while of mixing it together. “It’s green.”

“Well, it’s not the fondant like I was imagining, but this cake doesn’t deserve something so fancy,” said Louisa, side-eyeing the disaster of baking. “Thank you, Lea.”

“You’re welcome,” said Lea, giving her a smile.

“Great, let’s ice the thing,” said Ronja, grabbing the bowl of icing and a knife.

“No, let it cool first,” said Louisa, but it was too late as Ronja had already turned the bowl upside down so that green frosting covered the cake like a very green mudslide. Louisa closed her eyes.

“Hmm,” Ronja hummed thoughtfully. “It needs something.”

“Yes, the fondant figures,” said Louisa. Unfortunately, Ronja had other ideas. Before Louisa could stop her, the raven-haired girl grabbed a container of sprinkles and shook them onto the cake.

“There we go!” said Ronja, beaming. “Now, that’s a nice-looking cake.”

“I think it’s growling at me,” said Lea as she stared at it. Green frosting dripped sadly onto the table.

“I just wanted to do something nice for my friend,” said Louisa, tears sliding down her cheeks. Jack rubbed her back while Eden walked over and wrapped her arms around her in a hug.

“There, there, it’s okay,” Eden soothed.

“Hey, I heard a lot of noise earlier but I had a cat asleep on my lap so I couldn’t move, what’s going on in here?” asked Shadow, poking her head into the kitchen. She grimaced as she saw the mess, and the cake. “Oh.”

“Yes, oh,” said Race. “I guess it’s true that too many cooks spoil the food.”

“Especially if one is named Ronja,” Ali muttered.

“Sorry,” said Ronja, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Was just tryna have a bit o’ fun.”

“And it was fun,” said Louisa, wiping her eyes and making a mess of wet flour. “But now the cake is ruined.”

“Well, we can always get Mrs Holdsworth to bake a new one,” said Shadow. “I’m sure she’d love to bake a birthday cake for the girlfriend of her adopted grandson.”

“Yeah, and Z’s always going on about how good of a cook the old lady is,” said Jack.

“You’re right,” said Louisa, pushing aside her disappointment and anger for the sake of her friends. “Let’s go see her.”

It was a group of very messy teens and young adults (and actual adults, in Jack’s case) who turned up on the doorstep of Mrs Holdsworth’s cottage. The old woman adjusted her glasses as she looked up at them.

“Yes, how can I help you dears?” asked Mrs Holdsworth.

“We need you to bake a birthday cake for Z,” said Jacky. “We tried making our own, but…”

“Ah, too many cooks,” said Mrs Holdsworth, nodding. “Of course I can make the young girl a cake, it might even cheer her up after everything that’s happened.”

“That’s our hope,” said Jack.

“What did you have in mind?” asked Mrs Holdsworth.

“A nice little scene with fondant Justin, Z, and Phantom,” said Louisa. “And green fondant for the grass. A light green, not like the grass in Misfall.”

“I think I can do that,” said Mrs Holdsworth, nodding.

“And layers,” said Louisa. “With cream and jam in the middle. Just a plain sponge, I think, Z’s straight so the rainbow cake wouldn’t work quite as well.”

“Very well, I’ll have it done very soon,” said Mrs Holdsworth.

Later that night, the gang (minus Izabella, who was busy with Syntax because he’d heard murmurings of something happening at GED’s Epona site) had cleaned up for Z’s birthday party, which was an intimate affair held at Moorland Stables. The guest of the hour greeted them in a black and red dress, some lace in the middle of the skirt and a red ribbon tied around her waist. She smiled at them.

“Happy birthday, Z,” said Louisa, giving her friend a hug. Z returned the hug gratefully.

“Aww, thank you,” said Z, blushing. “You guys didn’t have to go to any trouble.”

“Yes we did,” said Jack, also giving his best friend a hug. “Happy birthday, my child.”

“Has Mrs Holdsworth been by yet?” asked Eden. “She said she’d bring by the cake.”

“Yeah, she came about an hour ago,” said Z, opening the door wider. “Come in.”

The inside of the Moorland stable house had been decorated quite sparsely, only a few streamers, balloons, party tables, and a single banner betraying the fact that it was a birthday party. One of the tables of party food also held the cake, though Astrid went straight for the punch bowl after leaving her gift on the gift table.

“This is a pretty nice party, all things considered,” said Eden, looking around the room. 

“Yeah, I didn’t want too much fuss but Thomas insisted on it,” said Z. “My future father-in-law, I guess.”

“No, you know,” said Jack, laying a hand on her shoulder. 

“Yeah,” said Z with a sad smile. “Someday.”

The cake was delicious, and the fondant figures, though not as detailed as Louisa had imagined, looked quite wonderful. The fondant Phantom even had the feathering on his legs. 

“I actually cried when I first saw the cake,” said Z.

“So did I when we ruined the first two,” said Louisa. “Trust me, you do not wanna see that sad thing.”

“Aww,” Z cooed, patting her friend’s shoulder. “I’m glad that you tried.”

“Yeah, well, I’m just glad that Mrs Holdsworth is such a good cook,” said Louisa. Z smiled.

The gifts were pretty good, too- Z received a subscription to an online game from Eden, a portrait of Phantom from Astrid, a book about horses from Louisa, a hand-drawn portrait of Phantom from Jack, some new horseshoes from Shadow, a CD from Ronja, riding pants from Jacky, a riding helmet from Lea, a brand new jacket from Ali, boots from Race, socks and gloves from Savvy, and they’d all pitched in to get her a custom figurine of every single one of her horses. Z gasped when she saw this last one.

“Man, you guys are awesome,” said Z, grinning as she beheld her gifts. “I love you guys.”

“Yeah, we love you too,” said Jack. “That’s why we all worked together to give you a good day.” Z grinned and hugged each of her friends in turn, because there were far too many there for one big group hug.


End file.
